I have a knack for meeting people. Perhaps it's because they want to know what I’m up to! Tired of the gloom of heavily overcast skies, I ventured inside today to see what I could find. The Panoramic exhibit in the History Museum is an interesting one, complete with 1920’s automobile, several cameras (one incorrectly labeled as to both manufacturer and purpose) a ball gown from one of the Veiled Prophet affairs and lots of interesting stories of life in Saint Louis. Perhaps the my favorite image was of the crowd on Art Hill assembled to hear Charles Lindbergh speak on June 29, 1927. The resolution of this photograph is incredible! With the print spanning the wall from floor to ceiling, still almost every face in the crowd was clear enough to identify the person, all in an image taken with one quick sweep of the camera’s rotating lens.
The resolution of the early 20th century panoramic cameras was as great as, or greater than most of our modern efforts. Here is a panorama I made in October of 2009 of Forest Park, looking eastward from the 21st floor of the Dorchester Apartments at 665 South Skinker Boulevard. This file is 370 Megapixels, but was stitched together from 154 eight megapixel files shot in 22 columns and 7 horizontal rows, unlike the single shot panoramic film cameras that caught it all in one exposure.
But it was a good explore. I puttered about the building looking for angles, contrast, patterns, repetition, and other elements of artistic composition. I also saw a few photo books in the gift shop there, and captured a great quote that summarizes what I am doing this year in Forest Park.
